


Blooming death

by MayWritesSometimes



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Ending, CF Route, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26854801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayWritesSometimes/pseuds/MayWritesSometimes
Summary: The crimson flower route ends with terrible consequences to Edelgard's choices.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Kudos: 38





	Blooming death

**Author's Note:**

> I was frustrated at the end of the CF route when I played it. I know a lot of people really loved it and the romantic ending, so if that's your case please don't read this. I just felt like Edelgard's choices needed to have real tangible and hard consequences, because she does choose the bloodiest of paths. The same goes for Byleth who helped destroy their own family.

They have worked so hard for this. 

So much blood spilled, so many lives sacrificed, in order to bring a new dawn on the world. 

Edelgard quickly wipes the sweat from her brow and winces as the immaculate one shrieks, the sound waves resonating through her ribcage. On her left, her teacher - Byleth, she quickly corrects herself - makes a vicious cut at one of the dragon’s legs tendon in a glorious arch of the sword of the creator. The rest of the black eagles strike force is hanging back, picking the reinforcements as they arrive in salves of spells and waves of arrows. Rhea's calls for help will remain, as far as she's concerned, unanswered. Which leaves Edelgard to take care of the beast herself, with the help of the power house that is her former professor. There is no one in the world that Edelgard would trust more with this task, and her trust has not been misplaced. With another elegant swirl of her sword, Byleth slices the tendons and the immaculate one's front legs buckle under her monstrous weight. Edelgard fails to repress the pang of excitement and anticipation as the beast exposes her long neck. Finally, after all these years, after so many hardships, her efforts are going to come to fruition. She will free Fodlàn of the monsters. She swings Aymr, and her gaze meets the clear jade one of Byleth. 

Determined. Reassuring. 

Together, they will bring an end to the reign of beasts. Give the world back to the humans. Build a better tomorrow, a bright future for the united nation. They bring their weapons down together, perfectly in sync, and the metal rips through the scales and flesh until it meets bones. A foul ichor pours out of the gashes and, at last, the immaculate one is fell, her horned head slamming on the ground. 

She did it. She succeeded. The elation mixes with the adrenaline of the fight and Edelgard feels so light she might start floating above the ground like a gremory. She turns to Byleth, her heart full of hope and victory and love, and Byleth returns her smile, a real, full one that goes all the way from her heart to her eyes. For one blissful second, every wrong has been righted, everything is as it should be. 

Alas. Edelgard's fate was never one of bliss, or fairness. Byleth's smile twists into pain and she drops her sword, clutching at her chest. Edelgard screams something and tosses Aymr, running to help her teacher as the woman falls to her knees, bent over in pain. Rhea snickers through her torn vocal chords, from where she lays dying on the ground, and Edelgard skids on the ichor trying to rush to Byleth's side. She makes it and eases the woman into her arms, as she gasps for air, her lips already blue. Her eyes go in and out of focus, and it looks to Edelgard as if she's trying to say something, but she misses the breath to form words. Edelgard tries to read her lips through her tears, her heart beating furiously in her ears. She thinks she makes out… 

El. El. 

"I'm here", she says, choking on the words.

There's no blood on her teacher's clothes, only thick, disgusting ichor. No visible wound. Nothing to fix. Oh, if only she could see what is wrong! If only she could weave white magic and heal whatever ailment is causing Byleth to suffocate! Her eyes are completely unfocused now and her gasps are weaker, her limbs soft in Edelgard's arms, her lips and fingers blue. 

I love you.

"I love you too", she cries.

No mocking sound come from Rhea, whose last struggles have ended. No answer from Byleth, who has gone limp in her arms. Edelgard pushes through the pain, the panic, the tears, stills her trembling lips and puts her head to Byleth's chest, listening for a heartbeat. 

Nothing. 

"No! You can't leave me!"

She starts compressions, and counts in her head. She tries not to think anything of Byleth's hair, which has turned from its bright jade color back to a dark, muted blue-green. She refuses to stop, even when the rest of the black eagles strike force joins her, a silent and oppressive semi circle around her. She tunes out the worried voice of Hubert, and the sad one of Linhardt, until Ferdinand braces her and forcibly removes her, grasping her firmly and standing a few paces back while Linhardt examines her teacher. 

Their professor. 

She disappeared more than once before, this cannot be the end of her story. 

But Linhardt stands again, and shakes his head sadly. 

"Her heart has never beat on its own. It was the crest of flames that kept her alive. And now, it's gone, with the goddess and her children."

Edelgard stops fighting Ferdinand, the shock of it all freezing her in place. Hubert takes her hand. 

"She fought valiantly. "

Edelgard can't even begin to form a sentence to express the turmoil going through her. She knew Byleth was the goddess' vessel. She knew of her condition. Yet it seems impossible that taking her children down would mean losing Byleth too. She had nothing in common with them, had not even chosen to be a vessel. It had been their selfish decision to make her into one, to implant a crest stone in her body. 

Edelgard gives herself five minutes to cry, and wail, and regret. Then Hubert helps her up, she retrieves Aymr, rights her clothes, and goes to make sure that this ultimate sacrifice was not in vain.

She leaves the body to the city flames, and does not turn back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading !


End file.
